Product vending machines are known to comprise a cabinet or similar container defining a space, which is bounded laterally by two lateral walls, is closed at the front by a door, and houses a number of fixed, superimposed trays of the type described above, which extend between the lateral walls to support respective numbers of products, such as bottles or cans. The trays occupy a rear portion of the space, so as to define, between the door and the front ends of the trays facing the door, a drop shaft communicating with a take-out bin normally located at the bottom of the cabinet.
A drawback of vending machines of the above type employing trays of the type described is that the products, as they are fed forward by the relative conveying means in a straight line through the outlet of the relative channel into the drop shaft, tend to tilt forward towards the door, before dropping vertically into the shaft. As a result, they are not only damaged by striking the door, but, in the worst case scenario, which occurs when the products are as tall as the distance between the trays and the door, fall across the shaft and jam between the door and the end of the tray, thus preventing the product from being expelled, and also impairing subsequent operation of the machine.
The above drawback is partially solved by vending machines such as those disclosed, for example, in BE-422127 and WO-01/29788.